Large-Batch Desserts

About 1 in 5 emails that I get from you guys is asking if you can double a recipe to make it serve more. The truth is, I don’t test my recipes that way. I only test my recipes in the way you see written. When you guys double or triple the recipes on your own, and write in to tell me it works, I’m ever so grateful. There aren’t enough hours in the day for me to both scale down recipes and scale them back up, so thank you for doing that work for me sometimes!

That said, I have been baking up some large batch desserts lately, and I thought you might like to hear about them. I share these recipes over on the Tasty Kitchen Blog. The great thing about looking at recipes over on the TK blog is that the recipes all feature step-by-step photos. If you’re timid about baking, let me show you exactly how to make a recipe, step-by-step.

First up, I made a recipe for the World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies. These cookies are thick, dense, and everything you want them to be. They have the perfect caramel flavor from the brown sugar, and I love that mini chocolate chips get more chocolate in each bite. These cookies were real winners. I was so glad to have a large batch of these puppies!

Next, I got a little daring. I have seen brownies made with black beans on Pinterest for months now. I have a pretty high tolerance for foods that are ‘health-ified,’ and I was prepared to sacrifice a bit of flavor in order to eat iron-rich black beans in my brownies. But with this recipe, I didn’t have to. Hand to God, you can’t taste the black beans in these Fudgy Black Bean Brownies. If you don’t grind the beans for a very long time in the food processor, you might get a bean skin, and that would be your only indication that these aren’t regular brownies. But if you grind them well, you will be rewarded with delicious, healthy chocolate brownies. And a lot of them. This recipe made 24 brownie bites!

I’m so glad I have this recipe in my arsenal.

Last week, I wanted cake. A big cake. Not a tiny 6″ cake that served two. I needed more than that. I was looking for a cake that I could have a slice or two of every day at 4:00 with a cup of tea. This Clementine Cake fit the bill so well. It just so happens to be made with some whole wheat flour and yogurt, so I don’t feel terribly guilty about enjoying more than one slice. It’s one of those cakes that you pour warm syrup over while it’s still warm, and you know how good those cakes are!

I hope this helps with your large-batch baking questions! As always, let me know if you have any requests!

Love and cupcakes,
Christina

About me

Christina Lane is the author of 3 cookbooks all about cooking and baking for two. She has scaled down hundreds of recipes into smaller servings so you can enjoy your favorite dishes without the leftovers! Valentine's Day is her favorite holiday.

17 Comments

I’ve been ever so hesitant to try the black bean brownies. I feel like if I made them for my famil and didn’t tell them, they’d probably like them. But I’d always know the beans were there and my brownie experience would be ruined. However, I trust you implicitly where desserts are involved, so I’ll give them a go!

The whole reason I visited your blog in the first place (and am saving for your cookbook) is because of your small batch recipes. As an older retired couple on a fixed income, it’s hard to find new and fresh recipes that are just enough for ‘us’. Yet the univers is loaded with sites for burgeoning young families and those going off to pot-lucks!

Now, you did hook me on your recipes, yes! But even you did change the format to include more sizable quantity recipes, I’ve fallen in love with fresh perspective, positive outlook, and sparkle you add to my day. And I am inspired to see how you’ve made changes in your life, reached for new things, dared to do the difficult, and succeeded. I can too, even at a grandma age.

I love to cook and bake, like you I enjoy a mostly healthy diet and as a couple we are nearly the same size as we started our marriage 42 years, 4 children, and 4 grandchildren ago. Actually I weigh a little less through smarter nutrition and, on occasion, work to keep my weight up. Some people may not understand that. But I do love a sweet (or several) and so does my Mr. I am figuring out how to channel all of that!

Must add my excitement over the clementine cake recipe! I have vintage (to you!) recipe which has been long ago moved to the back of my recipe box which may have been an original to this healthier version! It was a much much sweeter, white flour version, no yogurt, canned mandarin oranges, with the pour over, cooked overly sweet syrup using the reserved sweetened canned mandarin juice.

I LOVED that cake and think of it now and then. I’ll be making this as soon as I get to the market. And have it with a splooge a freshly whipped cream.

a/ gonna try the black bean brownies for sure. No matter the recipe I always add about 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne. Very subtle. You eat a bite then go, OH!
b/ could you? have you? downsize the clementine cake recipe.
thank you

Just made the black bean brownies. They are incredible! I don’t have a food processor so used my blender and had to add the applesauce to the black beans to give the beans a way to move in the blender! But turned out great. Thanks!

My one request for large batch would be to make your Blondies for my Labor Day family picnic in my 9X13 pan. Last summer I made a dessert called caramlitas that everyone was crazy for, but they were just too messy.

But those pecan Blondies of yours… Perfection! I’m afraid things would get mightily fisty if I walked out with a loaf pan though!

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